Video: Naya Humans In Standard

Today I've decided to play a slight modification of Ben Wienburg's Naya Humans deck from the StarCityGames.com Standard Open in Columbus this past weekend. I didn't take the deck seriously when he succeeded with it at the Invitational, but when the same player makes Top 8 of two large tournaments in a row with the same archetype, you have to take it somewhat seriously.

Sideboard

For the most part, the more I think about it, the more this deck makes sense. You're trying to be like the Naya or four-color decks that go bigger than Rakdos while being more aggressive to help the control matchups. Alternatively, you're like the G/W Humans deck but go a little bigger and rely more on non-white creatures to hedge against Rakdos. Also, the Restoration Angels in this deck are excellent.

My draws were excellent, but aside from that, I think the red splash definitely helps. Being a little bigger and having a little more removal is huge in the Humans mirror.

Also, he had Dryad Militant in his deck after sideboarding. For some reason, when I play the G/W mirror, this seems to happen a lot, and it never makes sense to me. Do people really think the matchup is about getting under the other person when neither of you has much evasion or reach and you just a have a bunch of dorks slugging it out? It seems obvious to me that you'd rather have bigger guys and more removal.

Overall, I think the deck felt pretty good despite my 2-2 finish. I was definitely impressed by the red splash against Rakdos. I'm still not sure about the Fiend Hunters, though, and I'm also not completely sure about Garruk.

About Sam Black

Sam Black is a Platinum Pro and member of Team UltraPRO. He finished fourth at the 2015 World Championships, he was a member of Team USA 2008, who taking home the Team World Championship title in Memphis, and he's also made the top 8 of 11 Grand Prix and 2 Pro Tours. He's also perhaps the only person in existence to win a car playing Magic.